Henk's Grand Ship Overhaul!!

So we all know about ships. You got freighters. fleets of big cruisers with some fighters. Sometimes you hunt pirates in a Corvette or gunship. Is it good as it is? Well, maybe, except for a few parts. Can it be better, more awesome, epic?  Hell yea it can! I grinded a lot of stuff, drowned a shitload of kittens, and came up with the following, starting off with a lot of changes to shipsize by changing sizes, adding classes etc.. just read it, and tell me what you think!

Ship Size Chart:      Size        Fighters/squads  Battlegroup  pilotsize
1) Vehicles         [Size: 1]       N/a              No           small
2) Fighter Ships    [Size: 2]       Squadable        No           small
3) Shuttles         [Size: 5]       Squadable        No           small
4) Transports       [Size: 10]      N/a              No           medium
5) Freighters       [Size: 20]      2/1              No           Large
6) Gunboats         [Size: 20]      N/a              Yes          Medium
7) Corvette         [Size: 30]      5/1              Yes          Medium
8) Sattalite        [Size: 30]      6/1              No           Large
9) Bulk Freighter   [Size: 35]      5/1              No           Heavy
9) Frigate          [Size: 45]      8/2              Yes          Large
10) Cruiser          [Size: 60]      15/3             Yes          Large
11) Battleship       [Size: 75]      20/4             Yes          Heavy
12) Dreadnaught      [Size: 100]     30/5             Yes          Heavy
13) Battlestation    [Size: 100]     36/6             Yes          Heavy
14) Platform         [Size: 200]     42/7             Yes          Heavy

Ship Size Chart:      size           Caplimit count   examples
1) Vehicles         [Size: 1]             No         n/a
2) Fighter Ships    [Size: 2]             No         R-41, X-wing
3) Shuttles         [Size: 5]             No         Lambda-shuttle, YG-510
4) Transports       [Size: 10]            No         YT-1300, Dynamic
5) Freighters       [Size: 20]            No         Gallofree, HWK-290
6) Gunboats         [Size: 20]            No         M22-T gunship, Duplex
7) Corvette         [Size: 30]            No         Crusadar/Marauder
8) Sattalite        [Size: 30]            0,5/per    Yeaaaa…
9) Bulk Freighter   [Size: 35]            No         BFF-1 Bulk Freighter
9) Frigate          [Size: 45]            1/per      Munifiscent/acclamator/nebulon
10) Cruiser          [Size: 60]            1/per      VSD/MC40
11) Battleship       [Size: 75]            1/per      ISD/MC80
12) Dreadnaught      [Size: 100]           1/per      Executor
13) Battlestation    [Size: 100]           1/per      Golan
14) Platform         [Size: 200]           2/per      Death Star?

Shuttles:        Small ammount of cargo(+- up to 3000); fast
Transports:      Medium amount of cargo (+- up to 7500); average speed
Freighters:      Large amount of cargo (+- up to 15000);somewhat slower
Bulk Freighters: Huge amount of cargo(+- up to 30000); slow

player-owned ships: Changes from a max of 3 to a max of 3 Non-fighters + 5 fighters
Battlegroups: Can now be configured to add any ship that has ‘Yes’ for battlegroup to any vessel that is the same size, greater, or 1 step smaller. (A gunboat can lead a corvette, but not a Frigate or greater) This is in accordance to size, which means a Dreadnaught is equal to a Battlestation, and as such can lead a platform, just as a battleship can lead a battlestation.
Player-owned Frigates? Still on APP-only, in accordance with 5-fighters rule, even if the owner is an engineer that made many fighters and as such owns 20, they are not allowed to have more then 5 squadded at the same time, unless they apped for that too.
player-owned battlegroups? Yep, they are in. Gunboats and Corvettes can now be battlegrouped by players, but they will be a lot less effective then a Battleship battlegroup. They can be up to 4, which means a player needs to gain access to the ship owned by another for the 4th vessel.
Battlegroup navcommands: Launch/land added for: Gunboats, Corvettes, Frigates. Launch added for other ships. Navcommands can now be used while a ship is landed/in hyperspace.
Squadron AI: With autopilot off: Is to be improved, squadrons should fire more weapons, use whatever weapons they want, etc. With autopilot on: follow Aconfig settings to the point
Aconfig: Uselaser split into two; UseIon, UseLaser. With both on, a Ship on autopilot uses both ion and lasers/turbolasers, while you can also set it to use only 1 weapon.
Caplimit: Changes to 8 +1/system(home system included, hidden excluded) for major clans. based on something Zeromus said, each major tends to get an engineering clan, whom can protect a planet, or more, with their ships if need be. (This requires Diplomacy) Sattalites can be used to artificialy increase caplimit with 0,5/system. A clan with 8 systems would then be able to field a 3rd fleet, but needs to aquire sattalites first through develop/trade. Caplimit for Minor clans remains at 3 (can be increased through app)
pirates/blockades: Pirates will be at every system excluding hidden sectors, neutral vessels to keep pirates away from neutral planets are to be removed/transferred when a clan takes control. Blockades on planets with 0 ships are twice as effective. With 2 or more ships in orbit, only 75% as effective. with 4 or more ships 50% as effective. (This is as compensation for the fact you can blockade a planet whilst out of range of defensive ships.)
Corvettes: Get a little bit bigger in weapons/quota at average (To soften the gap between frigate/corvette)
Protection?: Frigates and up are automatically refueled/reloaded/protected when autopilot is on, when in orbit of a planet, much like now except that frigates aren’t reloaded. Putting Corvettes in orbit does not protect them, and they can be shot by anyone, and do not add to the blockade reduction.
Escape pods: Engineers can install new escape pods into a ship at a garage (upgradeship)

While Corvettes and some cargo vessels can carry squads now, note that not all will have the capacity to use all their slots, if they get a hangar at all, and those that can likely have reduced other stats. This means they might fly with just 1 or 2 fighters.

Not sure if I missed anything, so if you note something else that could be changed concerning ships, place it here aswell.

I like most of your ideas, but if the ship limit for personal ships is increased, there needs to be a fee.  When I say fee, I mean something that comes out of your bank/wallet to maintain the ships.  At the current 3 ship cap, most people only own 1-2 ships, and use them regularly.  With the limit increased, some ships may go unused.  The bulk freighter idea is kind of nice, but if its a heavy, will it be able to land on the surface, or would you need a ferry, such as a smaller freighter or shuttle, to carry the cargo down?  If i think of any other things, I’ll post em.

It might be something to amend, 5 fighers might be a bit excessive, perhaps just 3 non-fighter+3 fighters would be better.  Nearly nobody uses starfighters currently though, most end up having bought an YG or a lambda or something larger, since Starfighters have little use for them. I don’t think a fee might be neccecarry, but perhaps a one time fee to allow you to instead of 3 ships, to own 3 non-fighters and 3 fighters?

And yes, the Bulk Freighter will be landable. Why it is a heavy though is because it will be a very large cargo vessel, fully loaded its hard to maneuver, and even harder to land, which is why heavy spacecraft is needed to run one.  In terms of credits/hour they will be better then any of the other ships though, but because only someone with 150 piloting can fly it, you won’t suddenly see them everywhere.